Chapter 691 - 2: Challenging the Tao Ancestor

Chapter 691: Chapter 2: Challenging the Tao Ancestor

At the same time, somewhere in a hidden mountain forest.

Accompanied by an abnormal twist of space-time, Li Boyang jumped out of it looking a bit bedraggled.

Then, as if some illusion had been shattered, a huge ring of light also appeared out of thin air in this patch of woods.

"Really miserable, huh!"

"Tell me, kid, how long has it been since you were this pathetic?"

Lazily sprawled in the center of the light ring, Xiluo toyed with the Map of Mountains and Rivers in her hand while teasing the thoroughly disheveled Li Boyang.

Inside that Map of Mountains and Rivers, the human-bodied, snake-tailed Jinhong Clan sat coiled amid shifting mountains and waters, using the map’s power to temper her Tao Heart.

"It really has been a long time since I was this miserable."

"Ever since I became a Pathfinder, I think this is the first time I’ve looked this dusty and beaten."

He patted his Red Skin Fur Robe lightly; Li Boyang didn’t care in the least about how pathetic he looked.

"If you ask me, you should just give up!"

"Being stuck in this era is still better than completely losing yourself in chaotic space-time, isn’t it?"

"Anyway, even if we tough it out and just keep living, we can still survive all the way into the future twenty thousand years from now."

When she got to this point, Xiluo’s voice paused slightly before she went on, sounding rather annoyed.

"To put it bluntly, you underestimated how dangerous it is to send your true body across time."

"Other Pathfinders, when they trace back through time, always let themselves live a whole new life in another space-time, walking the path to Dao all over again."

"But you, just because of your damned curiosity, went and used a ’Kunlun Mirror’ you haven’t even figured out yourself, and ended up trapped in a different space-time."

Seeing Li Boyang looking awkward and silent, Xiluo was so speechless she rolled her eyes.

"Houtu’s migration, the Ten Suns destroying the world, Xingtian waging war on Heaven, and now Emperor Hao’s rule at the peak of its glory..."

"Just count: how many eras have we traveled through? And how huge a splash have we made in the River of Time?"

Under Xiluo’s ’hate-the-iron-for-not-becoming-steel’ tone, Li Boyang scratched the back of his head, pulled out the Kunlun Mirror from his robes, and started arguing slyly.

"Back when we said we were going to time-travel, you agreed too, didn’t you?"

"And if we’d traveled normally through time without disturbing the River of Time, we would’ve gone back already by now."

"If anything, it’s because you just had to meet Wu Yao, and then her Celestial Destiny Divine Power saw through where we came from and triggered an unprecedented space-time paradox."

Though they were blaming each other with their mouths, Li Boyang had already started to feel suspicious of this whole situation of getting lost in the River of Time.

What Xiluo was griping about was indeed factual; Li Boyang also admitted he’d been a bit impulsive back then.

But the problem was, Li Boyang had actually long since considered this kind of scenario.

No matter how you looked at it, this repeated losing themselves in the River of Time, even causing the whole River to be shaken, shouldn’t be normal.

"Anyway, what’s done is done."

"I feel like Emperor Hao is setting you up, using your curiosity against you."

"From how things stand right now, he’s really studied you thoroughly. Just a single ’Kunlun Mirror’ was enough to throw the entire River of Time into disorder."

Listening to Xiluo’s line of reasoning, Li Boyang couldn’t help nodding.

Looking back on what happened from a later vantage point, Emperor Hao deliberately leaving behind the Heavenly Mirror as a Divine Artifact was actually him setting up a game for Li Boyang. ℴ

As long as the Heavenly Mirror fell into Li Boyang’s hands, with his personality there was no way he wouldn’t study it.

And once Li Boyang studied the Heavenly Mirror, using its power to travel through time would only be a matter of time.

Throughout the whole process, Emperor Hao basically didn’t even have to mobilize any power, not even the slightest bit of verbal temptation.

"I know that anyone who can suppress an entire era must be someone who combines wisdom and ability."

"But Emperor Hao coming up with a counter-strategy this fast still far exceeded my expectations."

Unable to hold back a sigh, Li Boyang laughed, looking a bit excited.

"I can only say that, even though I always talk about how I’m waiting for someone to surpass me, deep down I still underestimated all the heroes under Heaven."

"During Emperor Hao’s reign, the Creation Jade Disc is always in a disconnected state."

"Unless I forcibly use the Disc’s power, like when I recreated Outer Heaven and Purple Cloud Palace, and reshape the entire River of Time..."

"No—even if I did reshape the whole River of Time, I could at best temporarily calm this space-time upheaval. Emperor Hao would still find a loophole sooner or later."

Shaking his head as he spoke, constantly denying his own ideas, Li Boyang’s happiness was obvious to anyone.

Ever since he proved his Dao, Li Boyang had been waiting for someone to challenge him, to surpass him.

He’d even mentally prepared himself for that challenger to appear billions of years later.

But what he never expected was that before the challenger from the future showed up, this Celestial Emperor from the past, Emperor Hao, had already started challenging him.

"It’s just a shame I’ve never found Emperor Hao from this era, and have no idea where he’s hiding."

Hearing Li Boyang say that, Xiluo rolled her eyes again and mocked him.

"Knowing you’ve got the power to flip the table, and he’d still sit around waiting for you to show up—that’d be something straight out of a ghost story!"

"Keeping things in this state where he can hook your interest but not push you into flipping the table, that’s what’s best for him."

"Rather than that, I’m more curious why he has to use your hand to forcibly kick off this upheaval that sweeps across the entire River of Time?"

After several rounds of time-travel, Xiluo felt she’d already guessed Emperor Hao’s intention.

But precisely because of that, she couldn’t understand why he’d risk provoking Li Boyang, dragging this Tao Ancestor into his scheme.

Obviously, other Pathfinders have already started frequently showing up in the era he rules because of Emperor Hao’s grand layout.

Those Pathfinders either maintain or interfere with the normal flow of the long river of history, all just for the chance to prove their Dao in this era.

Yet for anyone wanting to achieve Dao in this world, that Celestial Emperor who suppresses a whole era is a hurdle they absolutely cannot circumvent.

To be blunt, with the whole world turned into his enemy, where does he get the confidence—and the spare energy—to deal with Li Boyang, this Tao Ancestor, on top of it?

"Maybe... he’s aiming for ’prove Dao once and be proven forever’."

Though he phrased it as a question, when Li Boyang said this his voice carried a strong conviction.

At Emperor Hao’s level of strength, ordinary Dao-proving barely matters to him anymore.

You can see that just from the size of the world in this era.

The original world never had an area this vast.

This is a high-dimensional state only a world that’s been upgraded in dimension can possess.

In other words, Emperor Hao copied Li Boyang’s method of upgrading the world’s dimension, and raised the dimensional level of every era he ruled.

"’Prove Dao once and be proven forever’?"

Staring at Li Boyang in shock, Xiluo could understand the literal meaning of the phrase.

But precisely because she understood the meaning, she couldn’t quite wrap her head around what he was saying.

"What do you mean, ’prove Dao once and be proven forever’?"

☞Monthly Ticket☜☜/☞☞Recommendation Ticket☜☜